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An In-Depth Analysis of Kate Middleton’s Sailboat Painting

As if aware of the withdrawal we’ve been suffering, waiting for the Duchess of Cambridge to make a public appearance after she spent two weeks off the radar in Mustique last month, Kate made her first public appearance of February an extra-special one today. Not only did she look especially resplendent, in a snow-white A-line Max Mara coat, she also gifted us with some . . . homemade artwork. Kate, what did we do to deserve this?!

Kate was visiting the Ben Ainslie Racing facility, which is where the headquarters of the 1851 Trust is located, the object of which is to promote sailing among young people. The site is currently under construction, so the organization decided to put up a mural to beautify the area (not that any kind of beautification should even have been necessary once Kate blessed the site with her presence, but we’ll let that go). Kate was heard saying she thought the mural was a “lovely idea,” and then went at it, contributing a sailboat to the mural. (She also noted that George “loves painting,” and that she had painted with him the day before)

Let’s take a look at the work (Kate was responsible for the large sailboat on the right), and then assess.

This is pretty nice! We especially like the double red stripe—a very bold choice to only continue one of the two stripes onto the gray left sail. Asymmetry is very cool. (Can you tell that the last time we produced visual art was in eighth grade?) We also like that little white duck (is it a duck? it looks like a duck) in the bottom left-hand corner of the gray sail. This is Kate’s quirky side coming on out. She finished the boat and thought, What does this bad boy need? A little duck guy!, and then murmured “Duke Duck” as she finished him, smiling to herself.

It’s hard to make out the shapes of the five passengers but we’re going to assume that they’re William, Kate, George, Forthcoming Baby No. 2, and Lupo. That could totally be a dog at the end there, right? The color gradient on the core part of the boat is also pretty appealing—she is not one to settle for a boring, same-same palette—she knows when a little added spice is needed. This is all to say: Kate, this is great! Why don’t you release a capsule collection of coats, a coffee-table book of sketches, an abstract sculpture of William’s head? We yearn for more.